My Rules

This small collection of documents should describe disk structures that
are widely used in IBM PC and clones. The audience is programmers who wish
to implement one or more file systems. I will not make any attempt to describe
physical storage interfaces or any programs that work with storage devices.

Before we start, I would like to make some things clear. First of all,
in no way should these documents be considered official sources. I, the
author, have nothing to do with those who make standards. Therefore, all
this information comes without any warrantee. Secondly, the shortmindliness
of operating system makers made hard disk structures unnecessarily complex
and limited. That is why I recommend applying the good old rule: accept
any kind of input, but be conservative in what you output. I will try to
be as clear as possible in describing what is commonly acceptable and what
you can expect to be on your hard disk. But please understand that no sane
programmer can predict what will the standards be a couple of years later.
That is why check dates of the documents before relying on them.

My descriptions might seem biased. One might ask why I gave clear preference
to describing Microsoft operating system structures. One of the reasons
is my involvement in operating system programming and the need to be compatible
with current software. Another reason is the stream of questions in
comp.lang.asm.x86 and
alt.lang.asm newsgroups, all related
to FAT file system.

Finally, do not hesitate to contact me in case you have any suggestions
related to these documents. I am especially interested if you find any
errors or unclear statements. Or you just might tell me how much you love
me.